This Charming Tale of A Lost Piggy Bank Illustrates How Santander Looks After Your Money

Daniel Kleinman Directs Spot With Animation by Framestore

By Alexandra Jardine.Published on Jan 11, 2018

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An animated piggy bank stands as a metaphor for your money in a new spot from Santander, the Spanish bank, which is promoting its Boston-based U.S. arm in a campaign by Arnold Worldwide.

The campaign sets out to illustrate how the bank looks after and respects your money, and the anthem spot, seen here, features the piggy bank as a cute piglet (animated by Framestore and helmed by top director Daniel Kleinman of Rattling Stick) who's somehow become separated from his owners and is wandering the streets of a city. Narrowly missing being squashed by trucks and pedestrians, he's found by a group of boys who pick him up and shake him, hearing money rattling inside. They drop him and he smashes, but he's saved by a Santander employee who painstakingly puts him back together, cares for him and returns him to the family who own him. A voiceover tells us: "At Santander Bank, we want you to prosper. That's why we treat you and your money just like you would--with respect. And respect adds up."

Other spots in the campaign take a more humorous tone, with the joke being that people have been fleeced, hosed, shafted and given "jack squat" by their banks, in contrast with Santander customers who have been given useful services and apps.

The campaign will be supported on Santander's social channels, as well as featuring OOH, radio and digital ads.

James Bray, executive creative director at Arnold Worldwide, says in a statement: "People don't want to hear the same bank industry talk-track from yet another bank. So, we built a strategy around treating people how they'd want to be treated. We used humor to entertain instead of sell, heartfelt stories to connect instead of preach, and humility to know when to get out their way--because that's the respectful thing to do--which is nice because it's also our new brand promise."